Hospitals provide a range of important services to people who live close to their vicinity. The hospitals offer functions such as outpatient care, and various inpatient services including maternity. Labor and delivery is a department of the maternity unit. The various services require a delicate balance of financial resources of the hospitals. However, the funds available to the hospital institution are limited at times. It, therefore, means that the available units will have to share the scarce funds. Highly sensitive units such as Intensive Care Units (ICUs) of the hospitals’ are sometimes given priority over maternity unit when funds are allocated.as a result of low funding; the departments in the maternity unit are not able to facilitate their duties.

The labor and delivery department at ABC’s Medical Center is highly affected by the acute shortage of funds. Consequently, it has become hard for the medical doctors and nurses to provide quality care to the expectant women.Most of the time, the labor, and delivery department lacked a continuous stream of reliable drugs, medical equipment, and supplies. In light of this, the infant mortality rate at ABC Medical Center has been on the increase in the recent past. The number of women seeking maternity services at ABC Medical Center has also decreased significantly.

In order to bring back the confidence in its labor and delivery department, the ABC Medical Center should come up with innovative ways of funding its departments. The money they receive from the government is not adequate to cater for its diverse needs. One of the innovative ways it can employ to come up with extra funds is to attract and target a large number of paying patients.ABC Medical Center’s vision is to provide high value integrated medical services that put focus on the patient. By attracting a large number of paying patients, ABC Medical Center will boost the funds it gets from the government(Behavioral Change Theory, n.d.). The improved financial resources will enable it provide high value, patient-centered and integrated services in line with its vision. Its mission reflects a medical facility committed to the provision of excellent patient care and service to the community.

In order to serve the increased number of paying patients, ABC Medical Center will have to improve the efficiency of its systems. The labor and delivery department will get adequate funds to acquire new equipment and expand the services it offers to expectant women. The increased efficiency will create more value and improve the service and patient care it offers to the community (Behavioral Change Theory, n.d.).

Hospitals are required to observe a high level of professional standards. To maintain some standards where the patients are handled and treated with professionalism, the medical center has to provide a conducive environment for its staff to perform their duties. If the hospital increases the number of the paying patients, it will improve its financial base. The improved financial base enables the hospital to provide a conducive workplace for its staff to conduct their duties and achieve high standards of professionalism (Johnson, 2009).

To implement this change at ABC Medical Center, Kurt Lewin’s Model of Change theory is employed to move from relying on the funds it gets from the government to raising its own source of funds by targeting a large number of paying patients. Applying the Lewin’s theory is beneficial as it helps the hospital conduct the analysis required and manage the change that will occur. Lewin’s Model of Change theory is a rational theory. It is oriented to achieving the plans and goals that an organization set out to accomplish. ABC Medical Center has set out for itself the enormous task of increasing its revenue streams and improving the service delivery to its patients (Robin, 2003 p. 20-31). To achieve its planned goals, the medical center has to be ready for a change, a transition period and seek to establish stability once the change has been affected. It will unfreeze itself from dependence on the funds it receives from the government.

ABC Medical Center can organize the necessary steps like advertising, increasing efficiency and expanding the services it offers to attract the paying patients. After taking these actions, it should strive to maintain the new status quo. Therefore, in choosing the Lewin’s theory the medical center will be able to control, direct and manage the change it seeks to achieve (Robin, 2003, p. 34-46).

To facilitate the change, Western (2010)point out the following useful steps:

• Give a definition of the changes that one expects to achieve. A person makes notes by writing the desired goal. The goal for the ABC Medical Center is to increase its revenue sources by targeting the paying patients.
• Conduct a brainstorming exercise to identify the driving forces. These driving forces are the ones that are responsible for pushing an organization or individual to effect a change. The driving forces identified in the medical center include the need to improve funding to its labor and delivery department to acquire new equipment, supplies, and drugs.
• Conduct a brainstorming exercise to identify the restraining forces. These restraining forces are ones, which are responsible for holding the individual or organization status quo. The medical center has relied on the funds it gets from the government to operate for many years. Due to this, ABC Medical Center’s management may be reluctant to try out other innovative methods of raising the cash.
• From the brainstorming exercises, both the restraining forces and the driving forces are evaluated basing on their strengths and weaknesses. An individual may take a deeper look into the favorable and unfavorable forces and evaluate the impacts of raising excess funds through paying patients and relying on the funds from the government.
• A further review of all the forces involved is done. The in individual in this step wants to identify the force (raising extra funds from paying patients or government funds) that can be influenced and possess a degree of flexibility.
• A strategy is formulated by deciding on which of the forces will be strengthened or weakened. For ABC Medical Center, the driving force will be strengthened by improving the services on offer at the medical center, acquiring new equipment, and aggressive advertising.
• From the strategy formulated, the steps, which will have the greatest impact, areprioritized,and the action step is drafted.

At the top of the management structure at ABC Medical Center, is the Board of Directors. They make decisions that involve the day-to-day running of the medical facility. They will initiate the change. The management of the change is on a shared basis. It will involve all the employees at the medical center. In particular, the doctors and nurses will have to improve on the quality of service delivered to the patients and communicate with the management on the need of getting a reliable and constant supply of drugs and other medical supplies and equipment.

References

“Behavioral Change Theory.” Retrieved July 3, 2014, from            http://www.csupomona.edu/~jvgrizzell/best_practices/bctheory.html

Johnson, J. (2009). Health Organizations: Theory, Behavior, and Development. Sudbury, Massachusetts: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

Robbins, S. (2003).Organizational Behavior. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Western, S. (2010).What do we mean by Organizational Development? Krakow: Krakow:             Advisio Press